Now i have played ns....
Justin_Case
Join Date: 2002-08-08 Member: 1114Members
Join Date: 2002-08-08 Member: 1114Members
...so I know what I´m talking about. I just have some small suggestions of things that I think benefits maps.
1. High ceilings
2. Wide corridors
3. Large open spaces(especially at marine base)
4. Water
5. A lot of ambience
6. More darkness
7. Infinite deeps
8. Sky(perhaps open areas with rain?)
Thats it for now! Cheeerios!!!!!
P.S. the maps are great!!
1. High ceilings
2. Wide corridors
3. Large open spaces(especially at marine base)
4. Water
5. A lot of ambience
6. More darkness
7. Infinite deeps
8. Sky(perhaps open areas with rain?)
Thats it for now! Cheeerios!!!!!
P.S. the maps are great!!
Comments
Darkness is good, but not if it keeps people from playing. Remember that there are a lot of people with different monitor/display settings out there, and not all of them know what they are doing. So if things are too dark for them, they'll immediately blame the map.
Lastly, infinite deeps are cool, but can be hell on r-speeds and game logistics. Make sure something can't crawl down there and hide indefinitely.
And about the sky, one of the offical maps has open sky at one place. Dont remember what its called though.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->1. High ceilings<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
High ceilings are great. Gives the player a sense of imposing/magnificent height, and allows for lots of alien hiding places if you include shadowed rafters/pipes/whatever.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->2. Wide corridors<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Definitely. A lot of the corridors in ns_nothing are too narrow, and make it difficult at times if you've got a bunch of Onos's trying to get through. I do believe that there should be at least a few cramped/chlostrophobic corridors to add a bit of uneasiness to the player's mindset though. Well... if you can accomplish that with a wider corridor though, all the better.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->3. Large open spaces(especially at marine base)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah. Due to the corridor-based nature of a lot of NS levels, bigger open rooms are kinda necessary to balance things out a bit. And they look cool as a plus.
Ns_nothing is heavily tilted towards cooridors in the hallway/room ratio. Something I regret. A map like Bast or Hera, where you remember specific rooms -- not hallways -- seems to be the better approach.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->4. Water<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Water rocks, especially on ns_bast. I'd love to see more of it in NS.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->5. A lot of ambience<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Of course. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->6. More darkness<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ehh, no. I definitely would not advise making maps much darker than where the official maps stand there. <i>Isolated</i> darkness is good... gives the aliens places to hide, and adds to the atmosphere when paired with brighter areas. But, an overall totally dark map is not something I think there should be a lot of. In my opinion, a very dark map holds absolutely no atmospheric value, and is a mess to try to play in.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->7. Infinite deeps<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You mean like the Pits-O-Doom scattered throughout ns_nothing? <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo--> I like pits! Dunno how much these add to the level, realistically though. They were more or less filler. I see no harm in infinite deeps as long as they a) aren't extremely excessive, and b) have ample railings, so players (Comprox) cannot be pushed into the pits by others. They may also be frustrating to new alien players who fall to their deaths as they slip off of walls as a skulk or fly down them as a lerk.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->8. Sky(perhaps open areas with rain?)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well... Just try to avoid the McDonald's PlayPen Happy-Go-Lucky Rolling Hills look. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
<!--EDIT|ken20banks|Nov. 01 2002,20:17-->
I think big beautiful rooms which, do arc elegantly into the top of vision have their perks, but I also love cramped corridors with low ceilings. Playing these maps it's a real eye opener. I love searching for alien passage/vent routes. I couldn't find many on eclipse, could you?
i played with HIM too. it's my hero (i have a picture of him in front of my bed)
Seriously i am a (not-that-bad, not-that-good) mapper and i'd like to do a map...when i'll have an idea, if someone have a (good) idea just contact me.
i found this...almost forget them:
<a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=4;t=1440;st=0" target="_blank">http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin....40;st=0</a>
<a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=4;t=765;hl=monkeyget" target="_blank">http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin....nkeyget</a>
I hope I wasnt being acting like an idiot, sometimes when I play as kharaa(as I mostly do) its hard to contain the frustration of getting totally I love chocolate(as kharaa usually gets).
Anyway, glad you like my mapideas. I have played the maps a bit more now, and have decided that ns_hera is the best map for ns. It contains several of my suggestions: Big open rooms, high ceilings(with stuff to hide behind), some very dark areas.
I agree that maps shouldnt be dark overall, but much more dark areas than there are now anyway.
Several maps are actually very hostile against the aliens, with almost nowhere to hide, brightly lit up everywhere and very cramped corridors. They all look very good, but some of them dont really have what it takes if you ask me. I dont remember which one is ns_nothing so I can´t comment on it.
You cant climb on the sky in ns_tanith,(strange that one of the dev team didnt know this <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> ) so I guess that means people can start making some outdoor areas! One cool thing would be a cave-complex with some outdoor areas up at groundlevel with jungle. If the cave was a mining complex it would make resourcespots logical.
heres another good thing that ns_hera has:
fog! (or mist or whatever its called)
<i>Edit: Sorry, Justin Case posted the same thing before me. Disregard this post.</i>
Yes. Skulks <i>can't</i> walk on sky brushes. They're clipped. Skulks can't walk on clip brushes.
<i>Edit: Sorry, Justin Case posted the same thing before me. Disregard this post.</i><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
and
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->You cant climb on the sky in ns_tanith,(strange that one of the dev team didnt know this ) so I guess that means people can start making some outdoor areas! One cool thing would be a cave-complex with some outdoor areas up at groundlevel with jungle. If the cave was a mining complex it would make resourcespots logical.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Gah. 'Outdoors areas' - in any shape or form - are not <i>banned</i> from the mod. It's not an issue of whether or not an area is technically outdoors or not...
Balance issues aside (The outdoors stuff in tanith resembles hallways and rooms, so this apparently didn't caue any issues anyway), it's about the atmosphere. NS_Hera's landing pad area that you can see from the glass tube is a great example of an outdoors area that does fit the NS atmosphere. While it can look great, a vibrant rolling hills area with bold, rich colors does not fit with the theme. A lot of people don't seem to understand this. It's not a technical "This is outdoors, it sucks no matter what!!" issue. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
I feel like a broken record here though, so... I'll just drop it for a while.